OK, can someone explain to me...

[Brian Leybourne]

(or point me to the explanation because I don't seem to be able to find it).

Gamist, Narritivist, Simulationist. Possibly others although these are the three that get bandied about, mostly on this forum.

Now, I would assume, logically, that the definitions go something like this:

Narritivist: a game that is mostly devoted to telling a story
Simulationist: a game that tries to model reality
Gamist: a game that is all about the game / neither of the other two

Am I close? Is there somewhere where these have been defined that I can't find? Help!

Thanks,
Brian.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/gns/gns_introduction.html

(Note: this was originally posted in the Actual Play forum.) And this isn't the 'general questions' forum, as I mentioned yesterday to you when you posted a Riddle of Steel question in here. We don't have a general questions forum, and this question would have most appropriately been asked in the GNS Discussion forum. (Which I've now moved it to.)

[Lance D. Allen]

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/gns/gns_introduction.html

I think this article is what you're looking for, Brian.

Also, it might be a good idea to take a look at the other articles here as well, even if you're not intending to design your own RPG.

http://indie-rpgs.com/articles.php

[Gordon C. Landis]

And if, after reading that article and poking around this GNS Model Discussion forum a bit, you still find yourself a bit confused - you're not the first.  Wander back to this thread, or start a new one, with a few more pointed questions.  I'm sure there'll be some folks interested in answering . . .

Gordon

[Paul Czege]

Brian,

Ralph "Valamir" Mazza's awesome http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1559">GNS Primer is also a good place to start in on this stuff.

Paul

[Christopher Kubasik]

Hi Brian,

Although Ron (correctly) points out the System Does Matter is out of date (many ideas have been hashed out since its writing), I'd take a look at it over in the articles section as well.  I think it's a nice "lite" intro into the mode of thinking about all this stuff, if nothing else.

Take care,
Christopher

[Brian Leybourne]

Thanks for all the comments all, I'll read through the documents carefully and get back to you.

Initial thoughts are that Gamist and Narritivist are pretty straightforward, but I'll have to read through Simulationist again :-)

Brian.

[deidzoeb]

Valamir or someone should post that Primer as an article, maybe with a link to Ron's heavier article at the end.  The Primer is really helpful.